U.S. Fines Essex $3.4 Million For Not Easing Jail Crowding

By ROBERT HANLEY, Special to The New York Times

Published: November 21, 1989

NEWARK, Nov. 20—
A Federal judge today fined Essex County $3.4 million for failing to ease overcrowding at the county jail and improve recreational facilities for prisoners there.

Noting that county officials had never fulfilled an 1982 agreement to limit the jail's population to 594, Judge Harold A. Ackerman, of Federal District Court, said: ''They have not yet spent a single dime toward alleviating the critical housing problem facing the Essex County Jail facility.'' The jail now holds 680 inmates. Though judges have imposed jail-overcrowding fines in the 1980's against Nassau and Westchester Counties in the New York metropolitan area and against Mobile County, Ala., and Allegheny County, Pa., Judge Ackerman's contempt fine was the first levied in New Jersey because of chronic overcrowding in the state's 21 county jails. Problem Keeps Growing

All have been filled beyond capacity for months now, and, though some counties are building new jails or additional wings, the statewide problem shows little sign of abating soon.

After Judge Ackerman's ruling, T. Gary Mitchell, director of the state's office of inmate advocacy, contended that for years the State Department of Corrections had been reluctant to enforce its own regulations governing overcrowding and that state judges have shown little willingness to intercede.

Consequently, he said, his office has filed nearly all its lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of jail overcrowding in Federal court in New Jersey. In response to those suits, Judge Ackerman has assigned special court masters to investigate county jails in Bergen, Camden, Union and Monmouth. In addition, other Federal judges have started inquiries at county jails in Burlington, Ocean, and Atlantic Counties.

Only the Hudson County Jail in Jersey City has come under attack from the state bench. Last summer, Judge Burrell Ives Humphreys, of State Superior Court, ordered the state to erect a complex of tents until a new 336-bed modular jail was built in Kearny.

As he imposed today's fine, Judge Ackerman said he expected Essex County taxpayers to accuse him of unwarranted intrusion into state and county affairs. Essex County authorities, he said, had forced his decision by failing to abide by an agreement made with him in October 1982, and renewed in April 1987 and again last December, to accept the cap of 594.

''What the county defendants have done is to blatantly pass the buck to this court by doing nothing but make empty promises,'' his decision said.

''I think he's wrong,'' said Mr. Meanor, a former colleague of Judge Ackerman's on the Federal bench here, said in response. ''We've made a very good- faith effort to alleviate the problem here.'' But, Mr. Meanor said, meeting the cap of 594 was an impossible goal for the county to meet by itself.

The drug epidemic, Mr. Meanor said, has doubled the jail's annual population to 15,000 in three years. He said the state lacks an effective speedy-trial program and has not provided enough money for more jails and sufficient judges, prosecutors, and public defenders to handle the growth of criminal cases. There are tentative plans to build a $150 million, 1,600-cell jail. In its efforts to comply with the 594 cap, the county has started an pre-trial release program for some prisoners and a screening program that downgrades some indictable offenses before trial.